MSI's R6870 Hawk Review

In this review we take a closer look at this AMD based HD6870 video card. Sporting a non reference design PCB and a specially built Twin Frozr III Cooler. For extra and stable power the 8+2 Phase VRM design make this Hawk card stands out from the 6870 cards. MSI provides this card with a dual speed fan switch. Retaling at a price around € 180, it's not even that more expensive regarding reference HD6870's. Interestingly enough the MSI 6870 Hawk can be found cheaper then some competitors versions.

Let's introduce the card

Before we start I would like to give our best wishes for the 25th anniversary of the MSI company

Founded in 1986 and still one of the leading manufacturers in the world.

Let's continue with another 25 years full of brand new technology!

So this time we have the Hawk edition of the 6870 AMD videocard on the test/bench table.

First of all we want to show some MSI product specs:

MSI has a wide range of 6870 video cards, but the Hawk Editions always take a special place. We can see that nicely in the below picture :

Standard higher then reference out of the box GPU/RAM clocks. Combined with better voltage adjustments, powered by a beefy 8+2 VRM Phase redesign. MSI's military high grade class components, should make this one heck of a video card.